1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spherical toy, more particularly to a blinking spherical toy.
2. Description of the Related Art
A sphere plays an important role in children""s toys, because a sphere is smooth and rollable, which much safer than other toys with angular shapes. Furthermore, the moving direction of a sphere is multi-directional and expectedly, therefore a sphere can satisfy children""s curiosity.
For example, a common toy: a ball inside another ball carries a weight at the bottom of an internal ball, and a decorative pattern is printed on the upper section of the exterior of the ball. After the internal ball is placed inside a hemisphere of larger curvature, and the hemisphere is engaged with another hemisphere of same curvature, an external ball is made. A liquid is filled into the space between the two balls through a predetermined ball hole on the external ball and a plug seals the hole so that the liquid will not leak. When such toy is played, the external ball can be rolled in any direction, and the pattern on the internal ball always faces upward due to the movement of the liquid and the gravitational force of the weight at the bottom.
After such ball in another ball has been played for a while, the excitement disappears very soon and no longer attracts consumers. Therefore, toy manufacturers try to extend the life of such product, and intentionally combine a key chain or pen, etc with the spherical toy to give diversified functions and a more appealing appearance. For example, the inventor of this invention has been granted with a R.O.C. Utility Model Patent No. 135683 entitled xe2x80x9cRotary spherical toyxe2x80x9d (foreign counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,789), which disclosed a novel idea for spherical toys.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a blinking spherical toy comprising an internal sphere with its lower hemisphere containing a battery module, a lamp, and a circuit board of related circuits, and the circuit being extended downward to two electrode poles and passing through the lower hemisphere; a transparent or semi-transparent upper hemisphere being engaged with the lower hemisphere, and the internal sphere being placed inside the external sphere, and both sides of the axial line on the external sphere having two electrically conductive ends; a bottom hemisphere being engaged with a top hemisphere to constitute the external sphere; a non-conductive liquid (oil liquid) being filled into the space between the external sphere and the internal sphere through a ball hole on the external sphere; a plug sealing the ball hole; by means of the gravitational force of the internal sphere, the upper hemisphere always facing upward and the two electrode rods being in contact with the contact ends. When a conductor is in contact with the two contact ends, it forms an electric circuit with the circuit board and lights up the lamp or makes the lamp to blink. Such structure is definitely a great idea and breaks through the traditional structure.
The secondary objective of the present invention is to provide a blinking spherical toy, wherein patterns are printed on the surface of the upper hemisphere of the internal sphere for enhancing the visual effect. In addition, the lower hemisphere of the internal sphere has at least one support member such as a support ring for supporting the circuit board. Further, a hollow axial pillar is disposed around the axial line at the bottom of the lower hemisphere of the internal sphere for passing the two electrode rods through and coupling to a weight in order to cope with the situation of insufficient gravitational force. In addition, the non-conductive liquid is an oil liquid.
In view of the above description, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience accumulated from the engagement in the related industry conducted extensive research and experiments to resolve the shortcomings of the prior-art spherical toy structure and invented the xe2x80x9cBlinking Spherical Toyxe2x80x9d according to the present invention.